


The Logic of All My Dreams

by Drogna



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Family, Hurt Rip Hunter, Hurt/Comfort, Ignores S3 & S4, Rip Hunter-centric, RipFic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-12 18:22:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17472623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drogna/pseuds/Drogna
Summary: When the team gets a distress signal from the jump ship that Rip left in, they go to retrieve him only to find that something is feeding on him. As he gets weaker, it's up to the team to save him, with the assistance of an unexpected visit from Rip's Dad. Set at the end of S2.





	The Logic of All My Dreams

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ms_FangTooth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ms_FangTooth/gifts).



> This is set at the end of S2 and ignores pretty much everything after Rip left the ship, with a very tiny tweak to what he told Sara as he left.

 

And as she turns  
This way she moves in the logic of all my dreams  
This fire burns  
I realize that nothing's as it seems  
  
I dream of rain  
I dream of gardens in the desert sand  
I wake in pain  
I dream of love as time runs through my hand

Sting, Desert Rose

 

* * *

 

“There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it.”   
― George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

 

* * *

 

The Waverider landed in London as the laser blasts fell onto the benighted ground. A fighter craft screamed overhead through the black of the night sky and the timeship cloaked silently. The ramp descended, allowing only the lit inside of the ship’s entryway to be seen. Rip Hunter strode down the ramp, his eyes wild and his pistol in his hand. He looked around himself, taking cover against the wall of a partially destroyed building so that he could get the lie of the land. He had minutes at most, and desperation clutched at his heart.

One of Vandal Savage’s soldiers made the mistake of rounding the corner of his hiding place and Rip had no qualms about shooting them in the neck, at the weak place between their armoured chest and the helmet. He could hear screaming to his right and he ran towards it, dodging more laser fire and returning it as best he could without really aiming.

“Gideon, tell me that I’m close,” he spat, the tension coming out in his words.

“The refugee column is to your right, about a hundred metres away. You need to hurry. Vandal Savage’s troops are close,” replied his AI. Her voice was reassuring. This wasn’t the first time she’d kept him safe in a war zone.

He kept low behind a wall, avoiding another group of Savage’s soldiers who seemed to be shooting civilians randomly. The fires of burning buildings were the only light cast on the scene. He closed his eyes for a moment, hating that he couldn’t save everyone, but there were too many of Savage’s men and he had a specific goal. He shook his head and continued his journey through the rubble of streets that had once been the homes of those fleeing around him.

Finally, he saw them. A dark haired woman and a blond haired boy, two members of a group of civilians who were cowering amongst the ruins of an aid station. It had been supposed to be a point of safety, but Savage had no honour and didn’t care if his weapons destroyed medical outposts or hit civilians. Their clothes were torn and they had streaks of soot on their faces, but they were alive and healthy which was all that mattered to Rip.

He ran to them, enveloping them in a hug, even as he knew they didn’t have time for such things.

“Rip!” said the woman, clearly surprised to see him.

“Daddy!” exclaimed the boy, elated to see his father.

“Miranda,” he breathed. He placed a kiss on the head of the boy. “Jonas.”

“You’re late!” she said with anger, but there was a nervous edge to her words and the fact she was hugging him was at odds with what she was saying. She clung to him for a moment and he knew she had been concerned.

“I know, I know, and I am very sorry.” He hugged them back just as hard. “This was the only point that I could make work without disrupting the whole timeline. I am so glad to see both of you. Come on, we need to go.”

“Wait, what about the rest of these people? We can’t leave them,” said Miranda.

Rip looked around him with exasperation. “There are too many of them. I’m not sure we even have room for them on the Waverider.”

“We’re not abandoning them to Savage’s men.” said Miranda, stubbornly.

“Miranda…”

“No Rip, I don’t give a stuff about the bloody timeline. I came here to do some good, so let me do it!”

He leaned in and kissed his wife. “I have never loved you more than I love you now. Gideon, we’re heading back and we have some guests with us.”

“Understood, Captain,” said his AI.

Rip loosened his grip on his family temporarily, and spoke up so that everyone in the group could hear. “Follow me, everyone. We’ll get you to somewhere safe.”

Miranda gave him a nod and a smile as Rip handed her his spare revolver. The two of them always had been a formidable team, and he now had more confidence that they would make it back to the ship.

“I’ll take point,” he said to Miranda. “You bring up the rear and keep Jonas close.”

She nodded. “We’ve made it this far.”

“We have, but it’s a little way to the Waverider. I brought her in as close as I could get,” said Rip. “This way.”

He indicated for everyone to fall in behind him and Miranda took care to see that everyone was following as stealthily as they could. Rip made sure that he was a good few steps ahead, and when a guard nearly spotted them, he was able to take them down with a swift headshot. The battle for control of London raged around them, but it seemed to ignore their small band of ragtag refugees. Rip was glad of the luck, they needed it as they neared the Waverider, although he did question why they hadn’t been noticed. Something about it didn’t seem quite right, and he had a strange feeling of foreboding.

The ground shook beneath their feet, and Rip wondered where the explosions were that should accompany such a disturbance. Miranda was suddenly in front of him and his thoughts were once more about her and their son.

“Come on, we’ve nearly made it,” she said.

The hatch of the Waverider opened for them and revealed the ship inside, just as one of Savage’s ships came in for a new strafing run. It had probably detected the break in the Waverider’s cloak. The laser fire that it rained down was far too close for comfort. Rip realised that they really had just been fortunate up until this moment, although something still nagged him at the back of his mind.

“Everyone inside, now!” shouted Rip, as he took aim and provided covering fire while the civilians ran in. He noticed Miranda doing the same on the other side of the column of running people. Jonas had already been taken inside by one of the other women, so he was confident that his son was safe.

Finally, the last person stumbled up the ramp, and he and Miranda were able to withdraw inside too. He hit the lever to close the door, and glanced up at the ceiling.

“Gideon, get us out of here. Take us into the timestream and we’ll work out what to do from there.”

“Yes, Captain Hunter,” said Gideon.

He felt the ship lift up and head into the atmosphere. He turned to Miranda and pulled her and Jonas into a hug. The three of them found themselves off balance as the Waverider avoided more incoming fire and they stumbled to the ground, landing in Rip’s lap with laughter as he pulled them to him once more. He felt tears of happiness in his eyes. He had his family and they were safe.

His world tilted sideways, the scene changed.

The tears turned to sadness as he looked down, he found that both his wife and son were cold and dead. They were motionless corpses in his arms, and he screamed in agony at their deaths. He was not on the Waverider but outside, in the London blitz. The fires burnt, the cold night air bit his skin and he had been too late to save them. The pain was indescribable, and he couldn’t imagine how he could go on.

Then there was a gut-wrenching shift in his perception and he could hear Miranda calling to him.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, we’re here,” said his wife, hugging him tightly.

The Waverider shuddered beneath them. There were tears on his face.

“I thought… I thought that… you were… d…dead,” he stuttered. “For a moment… But I’m fine now, because you’re here.”

“We are, it’s okay. Everything will be fine,” said Miranda. He allowed himself to cry the tears he needed to cry, because the three of them were all together. That was all he needed and all he wanted.

***

“What the hell is that thing?” asked Sara, looking down at the immobile and unconscious form of the former Captain of the Waverider. Bizarrely, Rip was smiling.

The “thing” that she was referring to looked like a nightmare cross between an octopus and a bunch of black roses. Red tendrils the colour of raw meat protruded from the centre of each flower, and they probed the air as if they were searching for something. It had wrapped drab green, fleshy tentacle-like vines around Rip’s body, and was settled on his chest like a vulture on a carcass.

Rip had left the Waverider, saying that he had nothing more to teach them and wanted some time to deal with a personal matter only two days previously. The jumpship had sent out a distress call, and when they had gone to retrieve it, this was what they had found. Rip lying on the floor, breathing shallowly, seemingly fine otherwise, but with this thing on his chest.

“It’s some kind of plant…” ventured Ray, getting a little closer to examine it. “It looks like it’s latched onto him and it has thorns that are digging into him.”

“Dear god,” said Martin. “Can we remove it?”

Ray knelt down beside Rip and tried to wrestle the thing free for a few futile minutes. The vines simply wound themselves tighter.

“Maybe if I get the suit…” said Ray. “Or Nate could try if he steels up.”

“Stop,” said Sara, “we’re just making it worse. We need to get him to the medbay and get Gideon to scan him.”

The vines relaxed themselves a little as Ray stopped actively trying to remove them. Sara frowned.

“You don’t think it’ll latch onto one of us instead, do you?” asked Martin.

“It didn’t seem to want to leave when Ray tried to get it off,” replied Sara.

Martin nodded, but he still seemed concerned by the possibility.

“We can’t leave him on the floor, Grey,” said Jax.

“I’ll do it,” said Mick, and lifted Rip in his arms, bridal style as if he weighted nothing.

“Damn it, Rip,” said Sara. “The next time you go out on “personal business” you’re taking one of us with you and I don’t care what you try to tell us.”

Mick carried Rip to medbay where he put him down on the couch surprisingly gently. Ray and Martin removed his coat and jacket, leaving him in his white shirt. It was impossible to remove that as the plant was clamped down too tightly to get anywhere near the buttons.

“Do we have any idea of where he was going?” asked Sara. “Did he say anything to anyone?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“Gideon can pull up the logs from the jumpship,” Jax pointed out.

“Gideon?” asked Sara.

“Captain Hunter was visiting Starling City in 2007. The jumpship landed on the helipad of Kord Industries where my records indicate that a fundraiser was taking place.”

Sara frowned. “Rip isn’t the type to go to historical parties for no reason.”

“I have completed my scans,” said Gideon. “The creature attached to Captain Hunter is a Black Mercy. It is a carnivorous plant of unknown origin, but not native to Earth, that feeds on the life force of the creature it is attached to. It keeps its prey subdued by providing vivid hallucinations. The plant forms a telepathic link with its prey and tailors its hallucinations to the individual, tapping into their most sought-after desires. The hallucination becomes more detailed and stronger the longer a victim is in its thrall. It is used on some planets as a way to provide a merciful death to those facing a painful terminal illness.”

Ray’s eyes widened. “So, it’s killing him, but he gets nice dreams while it does it. Great. How do we get it off him?”

“Captain Hunter must reject the fantasy that he is experiencing. At that point the Black Mercy will have no further hold over him and can be removed.”

Sara frowned. “Then why hasn’t he rejected it?”

“The hallucinations are quite real, and given the brain activity that I am detecting, I believe that Captain Hunter is happy,” said Gideon.

“That would make sense. The plant would want to keep its victim passive while it feeds,” said Martin.

“I wonder what he’s dreaming about,” said Jax. “I mean, we’ve been in his head. There aren’t a lot of happy memories in there.”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Sara. “Somehow we need to snap him out of it.”

“Yeah, but how?” asked Ray.

“I say we just cut the thing off him. Or better yet, burn it off,” said Mick. “I’ll get my gun.”

“No!” said Ray.

“Indeed, Dr Palmer, that would not work,” said Gideon. “If you try to remove the Black Mercy then it will poison the current host and attempt to move to another. The Black Mercy is also fire resistant. Any temperature sufficient to kill the Black Mercy would also kill Captain Hunter.”

“We could try cognitive intrusion again?” suggested Martin. “Maybe we could explain what’s happening?”

“I do not believe that Captain Hunter would survive the process. He is already much weaker than he was during the previous use of the CI device,” said Gideon.

“Great,” said Sara. “Then how do we do this?”

“I am searching my memory banks for a solution, but I have yet to find one,” said Gideon. “However, I have an extensive medical database and I anticipate that I _will_ find a solution eventually.”

“I don’t know if Rip has that kind of time,” said Ray, looking at the readings.

“His vital signs are already dropping,” confirmed Martin. “Perhaps the two of us can come up with a solution.”

Sara folded her arms over her chest. She tried to remember the last time she’d seen Rip smile, and couldn’t. The upturn of his lips appeared positively sinister now.

“We’ve got nothing else,” said Sara.

***

Rip stood in the parlour of the Waverider, and spoke to the hologram in front of him. To his right, Miranda sat in a chair, out of sight of the camera, but paying close attention to what was being said. She’d supervised the resettlement of the refugees in a safer location than London, and Jonas had been put to bed, with Gideon watching over him while he slept. Now all that remained was to deal with the not insignificant problem of Vandal Savage.

Rip gesticulated with a free hand animatedly.

“Captain Baxter, you’ve had plenty of time to review the evidence that I’ve presented. Clearly the Time Council are in league with Vandal Savage. He could not travel through time as he has been doing, or have acquired the technology that he has without help from them. They are the only ones with the means, motive and ability to position him as a tyrant. They have irrevocably altered the timeline, a problem that will take the entire fleet of time ships years to fix…”

Finally, he stopped to take a breath and see if his words were having any effect on his fellow Captain.

“You don’t have to convince me, Rip,” said Captain Baxter. “I agree. The evidence that you sent to me is undeniable. The Time Council is rotten to its core. The question is how we deal with it and if we can trust the other time captains.”

“You think the problem goes that deep?” asked Rip, leaning against the table. He was disappointed at the betrayal, but his family was safe and that was all that mattered.

“It’s a possibility that we have to consider,” said Baxter. “They could have kept it within the Council though.”

“My _own mentor_ , Zaman Druce, is the ringleader,” said Rip, with heavy disappointment. “I find it hard to stomach that everything that we have worked for has been in service to this travesty of our goal to preserve the timeline. I can’t believe that I was so blind to this.”

“We all were. How did you even begin to suspect?” said Baxter.

“Ah, well, I have a small confession to make. Perhaps you remember that there was a small scandal surrounding Miranda Coburn resigning from the Academy?”

“I do…” said Baxter, already sounding suspicious.

“I did not in fact break off relations with her, instead I married her and we, er, we had a son. I’ve been hiding it for years. I was visiting my family when I realised that Savage was conquering Europe much more quickly that records indicated he should. Subsequently I brought this fact to Time Master Druce’s attention, and he tried to kill my family,” said Rip. “Luckily I was able to reach them before Savage, but I was nearly too late…”

He looked down, finding it hard to breathe for a moment as once again he understood what it was like to hold their bodies in his arms. He knew what it was like to realise that the light had gone from their eyes and would never return… But he didn’t. That had never happened. It had all just been an unpleasant flash of imagination, his traumatised mind playing tricks on him after the close call.

He shook off the feeling and returned his eyes to Captain Baxter. She was looking at him a little quizzically, but that changed as he regained his composure. She was now giving him more the kind of look that a mother might give a naughty child.

“Love is not more important than the timeline, Captain Hunter. We swore an oath…”

“Which I have upheld!” he said, angrily, as he pushed up from the table. He straightened up, head held high. “I upheld it until I discovered that the very people I had sworn my allegiance to were also the criminals that I given my word that I would apprehend. At which point I had to make a choice. I had to decide whether my oath was in fact to the Council or time itself. I decided that my first duty is to the sanctity of the timeline, and my marriage has not once affected how I performed my work, not once. Or perhaps you would like to examine my service record, count the number of time pirates that I’ve apprehended, or look at my commendations for completed missions!” He ended his diatribe crossly.

“That won’t be necessary,” said Baxter, with a shake of her head. “On this occasion I agree with you. The fact that you broke the fraternisation law is unimportant right now. We need to deal with Druce and the Council before time solidifies and we can’t undo the damage that has been done.”

“It may already be too late,” said Rip, with resignation.

Eve Baxter raised an eyebrow. “Are you, the great Rip Hunter, going to give up that easily?”

“Of course not, but I am a realist. At this point all we may be able to manage is damage control,” said Rip.

“First things first, we need to work out how many of the Captains will back us up,” said Baxter. “I have a few trusted confidents. I assume you have Captains that you trust too?”

“One or two,” said Rip.

He wasn’t sure that he knew any of the others well enough to make value judgements. He had always worked best alone and he’d been hiding a very large secret, so making friends with other Captains hadn’t seemed like the best of ideas.

“Then I suggest you contact who you can. We’ll talk again once I’ve sounded out my contacts. Give it a day. If one of us doesn’t hear from the other then we’ll assume that they’ve been compromised.”

Rip nodded. “We’re going to need a good plan to take down the Council.”

“Agreed, but so far we’ve got the element of surprise on our side. Hopefully that will give us the edge that we need,” said Baxter. “I’m sure that you and Lieutenant Coburn can put your heads together and come up with something.”

“I’m sure we can. I’ll be in touch in twenty-four hours,” said Rip, with a look at his wife, and cut the connection.

Miranda stood and came over to the table. “Zanzibar?” she asked.

“You read my mind. A mission with a number of similarities to what we face now,” said Rip. “Gideon bring up the plans of the Vanishing Point.”

“Yes, Captain,” said Gideon. A holographic representation of the Vanishing Point’s corridors appeared in front of them.

“We’ll need to know the number of ships at our disposal and people, but I think that we can do it,” said Miranda.

“If we’re together then I know we can do it,” said Rip. “And once the Council are dealt with, we can rebuild the Time Masters properly, without the stupid rules about fraternisation, and decent accountability so that this never happens again.”

Miranda came around the table and wrapped her husband in a hug.

“We could finally be together without having to hide,” said Miranda.

“Yes, and be a family,” said Rip.

Words drifted in the air seemingly from nowhere. “I don’t know if Rip has that kind of time.”

The deck shook under their feet, and for just a moment he felt despair because he knew they’d never get to be a family. He’d never get to see his son grow or hold Miranda in his arms again. They were dead, killed by Vandal Savage.

“Rip? Are you okay?” asked Miranda, and he realised that he had been lost in a delusion again, one that he wished would go away.

He hugged his wife tightly. He had no idea why he’d thought her dead for a moment. It wasn’t the first time that it had happened either.

“I’m fine,” he said. “I was just very worried about you and Jonas. When I discovered that Vandal Savage’s conquest of Europe was happening years earlier than expected… I think it may have been one of the worst moments of my life. Things in London deteriorated so quickly…”

“I know. I’m still not sure how it happened so fast. One moment we were carrying on with life as normal and then suddenly bombs were raining down. I wouldn’t have thought that even the Time Masters could arrange things so rapidly.”

“Indeed. It feels like we’re missing something,” said Rip. “It’s almost like they have some way of controlling time itself.”

“Maybe they do,” said Miranda, a thoughtful expression on her face. “There were always rumours back at the Academy. There was a lot of talk amongst the science stream of a development project that was supposed to remove the need for personal interventions in the timeline, or at least make them considerably easier. It was a project to create a device that would allow direct manipulation of the timeline.”

Rip frowned. “Surely that isn’t possible… You’d need a lot more power than the Vanishing Point would have available. Although…”

“…there are various ways that they could…” added Miranda.

“…use the energy of time itself!” they finished together.

“Oh I have missed this,” said Rip, with a grin.

Miranda kissed him, and their planning was put on hold for a while.

***

Sara entered the medbay just in time to see the most recent failed attempt to save Rip’s life. Martin looked at the line on the medical monitor that was flattening and spiking alarmingly, showing that Rip’s vitals were in distress. He had a tablet in his hand and seemed to compare readings for a moment before vigorously shaking his head and then waving a hand at Ray.

“Stop! It’s not working,” said Martin.

Ray pressed some buttons and stopped the infusion of what Sara assumed was the most recent drug that they’d used to treat the time traveller. She didn’t understand the science, but she knew that they’d been trying to find a way for Rip’s body to reject the parasite. Attempts to shock the plant had ended in needing to resuscitate Rip, and there seemed to be no way to do anything to the Black Mercy that didn’t also affect the person that it was attached to.

“He’s getting too weak to try anything else,” said Ray.

“And we’re running out of stuff to try,” said Jax.

“I know!” shouted Martin, angrily.

“Grey…” began Jax, sounding a little defeated.

“Hey, shouting isn’t going to help anyone,” said Sara.

Martin took off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes. “I’m sorry, but I’m frustrated, and I should be able to solve this!”

“It’s okay,” said Ray. “We’re going to come up with something. We have to. I’m not going to let Rip die by carnivorous plant.”

Sara nodded, but she knew that things were getting desperate. They were running out of time to save their friend.

“Captain Lance,” said Gideon. “Another craft is approaching the Waverider.”

Sara was suddenly alert. “Another craft? What kind of craft?”

“It appears to be a Time Sphere,” said Gideon.

“Like the one Thawne had?” said Ray. “I saw it at the Vanishing Point.”

“It is trying to make radio contact,” said Gideon. “Shall I put them through?”

“Go ahead Gideon,” said Sara. “We might as well hear what they’ve got to say for themselves.”

“Hi there. You finally got your ears on? Took you long enough,” said a male voice with an American accent.

Sara frowned, already wondering what the hell this was about. “This is the Waverider. Identify yourself?”

“I know who you are. Permission to dock. I’ve come a long way and I’m on a schedule. Gideon, star, fast, limousine.”

“Code received and accepted. I’m opening the docking bay doors for you, Mr Carter,” said Gideon.

“Mr Carter? Gideon! What are you doing?” asked Sara.

“Mr Carter has the correct code and his voice matches my identification file,” said Gideon.

Sara let out a groan. “I swear that after this is done, when he’s well again, I’m going to sit Rip down and make him tell me all his stupid secrets.”

“Good idea,” said Martin.

“Gideon, get Amaya and Mick to meet us at the docking hatch. Apparently, we’ve got a guest.”

“Yes, Captain Lance,” said Gideon.

“Jax, you’re with me. Martin, Ray, look after Rip,” said Sara, and strode out of medbay, with Jax dashing after her.

“What is going on?” asked Jax, as he caught up.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” said Sara, with resignation.

They rounded the corner to find Amaya and Mick already stood by the door to the docking bay. Mick was clutching his heat gun, whilst Amaya was standing ready to fight. Sara took out her sticks, prepared to face whatever came through the door.

The controls indicated that the outer doors were shut and the air pressure had normalised. Sara watched the hatch open and out stepped a man in what looked like a high-tech leather suit in dark blue. It had gold bracers and a large gold triangle with a star motif on the chest. He wore yellow tinted goggles and had gold toecaps on his boots. The man himself was tall, blond, and he clearly worked out.

He saw the four people in his welcoming committee and smiled, showing off the whitest set of teeth that Sara thought she’d ever seen. For just a second she considered the question of whether they might glow in the dark, before she put that stray thought to one side.

“Hi, I’m Booster Gold, the greatest hero you’ve probably never heard of!”

Sara’s eyebrows raised and she exchanged a quick look with Amaya.

“You got the never heard of you part right,” said Mick, gruffly, aiming his gun squarely at Booster’s chest, just as a shiny gold egg shape with a round red light embedded in it hovered into view at roughly shoulder height. Sara couldn’t see any method of propulsion that was keeping the thing in the air.

Mick reset his aim towards the new danger, his eyes wide.

“Woah now, this is just Skeets, my robot companion,” said Booster, holding up his hands to show more gold metal work on the palms of his gloves. “I’m not a threat. I’m one of the good guys. See!”

He flashed a gold ring with a capital L and a star symbol on it towards them, clearly expecting them to know what that was. Then he grinned as if everything was fine.

“Now, where’s my son?”

Booster put his fists on his hips, posing impressively, and seeming not to care that Mick was pointing a gun towards him again.

“Your son?” said Sara.

“Yes, my son, where is he?”

“Who, exactly, is your son?” asked Amaya.

“Rip Hunter,” said Booster, as if it was totally obvious and Amaya should have known already.

“Rip is your _son_?” said Sara, with disbelief.

That seemed extremely unlikely given the little that they knew about Rip’s past, but now that she looked at him more closely, she could sort of see the resemblance. Booster was more muscled than his son, but he had the same face shape and height. He still didn’t really look old enough to have a son the age that Rip was, though. Either Booster was older than he looked or she supposed that time travel might have something to do with it. Sara had a lot of questions.

“Yes, we’re wasting time. He was supposed to contact me about… a thing… and he hasn’t. That usually means he’s in trouble, and I was kind of in the middle of something so I’d like to get this wrapped up quickly. This is his ship, so where is he?”

“How did you even find us?” asked Sara.

“Skeets contacted Gideon,” said Booster, with an offhand indication at the robot.

“And she just gave you our location?” asked Sara.

“Mr Carter _is_ family, Captain Lance,” said Gideon. “Captain Hunter’s standing orders regarding Booster Gold are that he is always welcome on board.”

Sara ignored the fact that Rip was no longer Gideon’s captain, so those standing orders shouldn’t still exist. She’d have to deal with that issue later.

“Booster Gold really is Rip’s father?” asked Jax.

“Yes, Mr Jackson,” said Gideon.

Jax looked quite taken aback by the mere idea that the man stood in front of them was related to their former Captain.

Sara lowered her weapons. “Stand down everyone. We should probably introduce ourselves. I’m Sara Lance, this is Jax Jackson, Amaya Jiwe and Mick Rory.” She indicated each of them with a nod. “I think you’d better come with us.”

Mick put away his gun and Amaya tried to look a little less intimidating. Sara gestured for Booster to follow them through the corridors of the Waverider and to the medbay.

“Rip didn’t tell me that he had guests,” said Booster, as they walked.

“We’re not “guests”,” said Jax, “we’re the crew.”

“Crew? Well, that’s new. Why wasn’t Rip here to meet me? Wait, this is the way to medbay…” said Booster, glancing around as they walked. Apparently he really had been on the Waverider before. “Is Rip okay?”

“He took out the jumpship. We received a distress call a little while later and when we retrieved it, this is how we found him,” said Sara, as they entered the medbay.

Booster stopped in the doorway, his breath hitched for a moment, and then he seemed to give himself a mental kick. He walked into medbay and straight to Rip’s side, looking over the thing that was attached to him. It might have been Sara’s imagination, but she thought that Rip looked even paler now than he had before.

“Oh kid, you did it this time,” said Booster, softly. If Sara hadn’t been standing next to him then she wouldn’t have even heard it.

“Skeets, scan that thing and talk to Gideon. I’m pretty sure that between the two of you you’ll come up with a solution,” said Booster.

“Yes, Sir,” replied the small robot.

“It’s a Black Mercy, right?”

“That is correct,” said Skeets. “It is currently feeding on Captain Hunter’s life force energy, whilst engaging his brain in pleasant hallucinations to keep him placid. It is most likely that it has locked on to moments in his life that he wished had gone differently.”

Booster hung his head, and took Rip’s hand in his.

“Who is this?” asked Martin, indignantly, looking at Sara.

“Martin, Ray, meet Booster Gold, Rip’s Dad,” said Sara.

“Rip’s Dad?” asked Ray.

“Surely you’re too young to be Captain Hunter’s father,” said Martin.

“Time travel, it’s a pain in the ass,” said Booster. “It’s oh so fun when your grown son turns up on your doorstep and tells you he has a job for you. “Hi, my name’s Rip Hunter and I’m your son. Could you fix the timeline for me?” “Sure, son, let me just get that for you. Oh by the way, I thought you were lost forever, nice of you to let me know you’re alive.” We didn’t get off to the best start, or ongoing to be honest. We do things differently.”

Booster took in a deep breath.

“I can imagine,” said Martin, looking at the bright gold decoration on Booster’s suit that was so highly polished that it practically shone.

“How bad is it?” asked Booster.

“The plant is killing him,” said Ray. “He probably has a day at most before he’s too weak to sustain normal bodily function, and then he’ll go into total organ failure. Even Gideon can’t bring him back from that. I doubt he’d have lasted that long without the Waverider’s medbay, but we haven’t given up yet. We’ll find a way to bring him out of this.”

Booster nodded, sadly. “Thank you for taking care of him. That includes you, Gideon.”

“I always take care of Captain Hunter. It is my job,” said Gideon, and Sara thought there might be a small amount of indignation in her tone.

Booster actually smiled at that.

“Do you know anything about who did this to him?” asked Sara.

“I have an idea. I asked Rip for his help. I found out that Maxwell Lord was planning to do something to Ted at his fundraiser,” said Booster.

“Ted Kord? The inventor and businessman? That Ted?” asked Ray.

“Yeah, he’s a really good friend of mine,” said Booster. “He’s also the Blue Beetle.”

“Wow, I had no idea that he was the Blue Beetle. I always wanted to be Ted Kord when I was younger,” said Ray, “he had so many great gadgets.”

“Ray, let the man speak,” said Jax.

“Right, sorry,” said Ray.

“So, Lord was planning something, but something that hadn’t happened in the original timeline. I know I can’t alter anything that’s supposed to have happened, Rip’s always been firm on that. And some events just can’t be changed, they’re sort of set in stone. Time wants to happen.” Booster squeezed Rip’s hand with affection, and there was a slight smile on his lips as he uttered the phrase. The smile disappeared as he continued though. “But somehow this was wrong. It wasn’t supposed to happen and I had to stop Lord, but the problem is that I’ve already met Ted by 2007, which was when the fundraiser was, and I remember being there…”

“And you couldn’t cross your own timeline,” said Ray, nodding sagely, with a slightly guilty look across to Sara.

“Exactly, so I called Rip. We met in Metropolis and he told me that he’d handle it, despite the fact that he looked ready to drop. I tried to persuade him to take some time off before he tackled the mission, but he just gave me the speech about time getting less malleable the longer it’s left.” Booster looked down at his son. “Damn it, Rip, I told you…” he tailed off, as if he’d suddenly remembered that he wasn’t alone with his son.

“And he was going to contact you once he’d fixed things?” asked Amaya.

“Yeah, he said he’d get back to me and it shouldn’t be that difficult,” said Booster. “I should have known that meant trouble.”

“It usually does,” said Sara. She’d had enough experience with Rip to know that. “That doesn’t explain how he ended up like this though.”

“I think Lord intended the Black Mercy for Ted,” said Booster. “They’ve been business rivals for years by 2007. He hates Ted. The worst part is that I can’t even do anything about it, I know how it ends and all the steps in between. Being a time traveller really sucks sometimes.”

“Tell me about it,” replied Sara.

Skeets finished his scans. “I may have a way to help Captain Hunter, but it will require modifying some of the Waverider’s systems.”

Sara was suddenly more alert. “Okay, what do we need to do?”

***

Rip had been pleasantly surprised to find that the Time Captains had all sided with him against the Council, none of the Captains had enjoyed being played with. Rip had borne the worst of the Council’s manipulation, being their chosen pawn, but the others had been ordered to damage the timeline that they’d sworn to protect and hadn’t even known what they were doing. They were understandably angry.

Rip and Miranda had put together a flawless plan. They knew the Vanishing Point, all it’s weaknesses and strengths, and once they were inside it’s area, the device the Time Masters had constructed to affect time could not touch them. They had theorised that was the case, but were happy to be proved correct.

So now Rip stood in the Council Chamber with his revolver pointed at Zaman Druce.

“You tried to kill my family! You deliberately corrupted Gideon’s files, allowing me to think that 2166 would be a safe place for them to settle.”

“You broke the rules. Did you think we wouldn’t find out?” snarled Druce. “And what is one woman and a child when weighed against the good of the timeline.”

In the shadows the other Time Captains were arresting the rest of the Council.

“Everything!” said Rip, angrily. They were his family, all he had, and Druce had treated them like they were nothing. “If you don’t understand that then you have lost your way even more thoroughly than I thought.”

“In 2175, less than ten years from when Savage conquers the world, the Earth is attacked by a warlike race of extra-terrestrials from the planet Thanagar. Without Savage to unite the world under a singular rule, all human life is extinguished,” said Druce.

“You are as mad as your friend Vandal if you think that he is the world’s only hope,” replied Rip.

“I don’t expect you to take my word for it. Go to the Oculus, see for yourself,” said Druce. “And once you have come to the same conclusion as we did, then we can work together again.”

“No, you have betrayed everything that we stand for. I will never work with you again. I’m assuming that the Oculus is the device you used to manipulate time and me?” asked Rip.

Druce nodded. “It will show you the past and future as it is set out, and it will dictate the path that both take.”

“What about choice? What about free will?”

“Illusions. The only place those exist is here, at the Vanishing Point,” said Druce.

The floor of the Council Chamber vibrated beneath his feet. For just a moment Rip had a strong sense of déjà vu, and that this conversation was taking place in a different location. He shook it off.

“Then this must end,” said Rip. “Take me to the Oculus.”

Druce’s shoulders actually dropped just a little, much to Rip’s satisfaction. The Time Master led Rip to another room, with guards trailing behind them to keep an eye on Druce.

“Our holiest of holies,” he said. “The Oculus viewing chamber. Take a look for yourself and you’ll see that I was right about everything.”

Rip tentatively stepped into the Oculus stream, and was flooded with information. He watched history unfold, but he also saw Miranda and Jonas. He saw them die, but then the scene rewrote itself and they were saved. Jonas grew up and became a Time Captain like his father, eventually taking the Waverider as his ship. But other threads refused to be ignored, showing him a reality where he recruited a group of misfits to avenge his dead family. He quickly dismissed that, and concentrated on the Thanagarian threat. Instantly he could see where the Time Masters had gone wrong.

They had wanted a warlord. To them that was logical. Get a tyrant to stop a tyrant. But Rip was looking at two small pods in space, one thrown off course by a meteor impact so that it never reached Earth, and the other not quite fast enough to escape the dying planet of Krypton. What humanity actually needed was a superhero, one who would unite the planet and be a symbol of hope. This Earth needed a Kryptonian (or two, if he was being accurate), like Earth 38, and now Rip knew how to fix the timeline. He almost laughed at how easy it might be. Earth would be ready for the Thanagarians and it never had to have Vandal Savage as it’s tyrant.

He stepped back from the Oculus.

“Your plan was madness from beginning to end. How could you think that Vandal Savage was the answer? There are so many other solutions…” He turned to the guards. “Take him away. The entire Council will face trial for their crimes against the timeline.” As the guards manhandled Druce away, he added: “I doubt you would have done the same for me had our positions been reversed.”

He knew with a certainty that he was entirely right – generally enemies of the Council were executed. He stood alone in the Oculus viewing chamber and was equally certain that the Oculus had to be destroyed. He needed to find the power source for the abomination and end this thing for good.

“Rip?” asked a voice from behind him and he turned to see Eve Baxter.

“Miranda and I were right. They had a device that they were using to engineer time itself. Everything that we’ve done was because we were their puppets,” said Rip. “Except perhaps for this. But it’s over now.”

“That’s what I came to talk to you about,” said Eve. “Now that the Council has been arrested, we need to appoint a new Council. The Time Masters need direction and leadership. We need to undo this mess, and we can’t do that without organisation.”

Rip shook his head. “No, we need something better. We can’t make the same mistakes that we made before. We need transparency.”

Eve raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms over her chest. “You sound like you’ve thought about this.”

“I have, actually,” said Rip, looking at the glowing lights of the Oculus.

“Then tell me, I’m all ears and the sooner we can get this place up and running again the better,” said Eve.

Rip allowed himself a smile. Of course Captain Baxter wanted to get everything up and running again, and do it better this time. She was the best of them, the Captain of the flagship of the fleet and someone that he respected immensely.

“Very well,” he said, and outlined all his ideas for the new era of the Time Masters. They would abandon their barbaric torture and execution of prisoners, they would not use men and women as tools as they had previously, they would ensure that all the Captains knew what the threats to the timeline were and would listen to their ideas. Serving Captains would be part of the new oversight committee, as would other member of staff, the scientists, the medical personnel and security staff. Everyone would have a say, and they would make sure their voices weren’t ignored.

It would be a glorious new order with no more shadowy cabals deciding the fate of the world.

“But it still needs a leader, even if they then report to your new committee. We have to have someone to make the tough choices when they need to be made. I think it’s obvious who that should be,” said Eve.

“Indeed, and I would be happy to serve under your command in this new organisation,” said Rip, but Eve was shaking her head.

“I didn’t mean me. I meant you. You’re the one who saw through what the Council was doing, and it’s your vision. You should be the one to implement it,” said Eve.

“But I broke the rules…”

Eve shrugged. “I’m pretty sure that mutiny is considered to be breaking the rules too, and we’re all guilty of that. I don’t see why the no fraternisation rule is so important. We can get rid of that too.”

“But the other Captains…” he began.

“Would support you. They already have.”

Rip stood open mouthed for a moment. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Say you’ll do it. It’ll make my life a lot easier,” said Eve.

“Only if I can reinstate Miranda at her previous rank,” said Rip. “And my family stay with me. I won’t be separated from her and Jonas again.”

“I don’t see a problem with that. Miranda completed the training to be a Time Master, she just never graduated,” said Eve. “I doubt you’ll be the last Time Master to marry now that the ban on relationships is lifted.”

“I’m not going to sit behind a desk all day. I still want to get out of the Vanishing Point and lead missions…”

Eve held up her hand. “Rip, you’re going to be the one in charge. You can do what you like.”

“Oh,” he said. “I suppose I can. Then yes. Yes, I will do it.”

Eve offered Rip her hand to shake. “Congratulations Captain, you’re the new head of the Time Masters.”

He took her hand and shook it. “Thank you, Captain. I promise that your faith in me will not be misplaced.”

***

Sara watched as Martin gently placed the metal circlet around Rip’s head. It had a number of wires coming from it that connected into Gideon’s mainframe.

“You’re sure that this won’t harm him?” Martin asked the golden egg that hovered in the air a few feet away.

“Absolutely, Professor Stein. This technology is from beyond even when the Waverider was built. It is non-invasive and able to work with Gideon’s psychic dream monitoring systems,” replied Skeets. “It is not in any way like the Cognitive Intrusion techniques used by the Time Masters that have been known to leave cerebral scarring and would not be safe to use in these circumstances.”

“I am in agreement with Skeets, Professor Stein,” said Gideon. “This will not harm Captain Hunter or any of those who are entering his hallucinations.”

“I trust Skeets,” said Booster. “He’s never let me down, and Gideon always has Rip’s best interests at heart.”

Sara nodded. “Okay, Martin, monitor his vitals. If it doesn’t look like it’s working or he’s in distress then you cut us off. Everyone, get to your stations.”

The “stations” were actually three padded mats so that everyone who had volunteered for the return trip into Rip’s mind could have somewhere to lie down. Booster had already got dibs on the other medbay couch, which was by far the most comfortable option. This venture was a lot less dangerous that Cognitive Intrusion, but it still had risks. The human brain was weirdly good at making the body think that things were real, even when they weren’t, and Gideon had already warned them that they might experience some feedback. If Rip was hurting, then it was possible that they might also feel his pain. Given that Rip was dying, she wasn’t looking forwards to finding out what organ failure felt like. They needed to get in and out quickly.

Mick had the added duty of killing the Black Mercy when it had left Rip’s body. Once that happened, everyone was fine with him incinerating the thing with as much prejudice as he felt like using. Martin would keep watch over everyone involved and remove people from the link if things went wrong. Skeets and Gideon would handle the technical side of things.

Ray, Jax and Sara laid down on their mats and put on their own metal circlets, whilst Booster got comfortable on the couch.

“Everyone ready?” asked Sara. She received a series of affirmative responses. “Sedatives, Gideon.”

They needed to be asleep for this to work and they didn’t have time to fall asleep naturally, so they’d all also been hooked up to the medbay’s medical systems.

“Injecting now,” said Gideon. “Sweet dreams.”

Sara felt her eyes closing and then she was in a very familiar looking hangar.

“The Vanishing Point…” she breathed. This wasn’t how they’d last seen it though. They’d left the Vanishing Point a dark, lifeless place, consumed by the explosion that they’d set to destroy the Oculus, but this was as it had been when the Waverider had been captured. There were ships here that she didn’t even recognise, perhaps they just hadn’t been docked when they’d crippled the other AIs and made their escape.

“Wow, I’d forgotten how big this place was,” said Ray, “also it’s a lot more fun being here when we’re not being arrested by the evil time police.”

“Where are we?” asked Jax, and Sara remembered that Jax had missed the entire being arrested thing because he’d been sent home by Martin. Luckily he’d decided to come back or they’d never have survived their assault on the Oculus wellspring.

“This is the central time ship hangar of the Time Master’s headquarters in the Vanishing Point,” said the voice of Gideon, and when Sara turned to look, the AI had joined them in her human form.

“Gideon?” asked Sara. “I thought you were going to monitor us back in the real world?”

“Skeets is quite capable of doing that alone, and I am able to multitask. Besides, you didn’t think that I could know that Captain Hunter is in trouble and not join you to save him?” she asked, a defiant look in her eye.

Sara gave her a slightly unimpressed look, but she wasn’t going to bother trying to order her to leave. She’d have a better chance at making water flow uphill.

“You’re Gideon?” asked Ray. “Wow.”

“Yeah, Rip can really pick ‘em,” said Booster, sounding impressed.

Sara turned to see what their other team member was doing and found that Booster had already wandered off, heading towards what appeared to be a large crowd. It looked like some kind of ceremony.

“Booster, wait!” said Sara.

“No time to waste,” he said over his shoulder, “come on!”

The man in the navy and gold suit waved a hand at her to be quiet, which did nothing but annoy Sara. She stormed after him, but as she got closer she could see why Booster had become so interested. Stood on a dais, behind a podium was Rip, dressed in his usual long coat, but with some added embellishments on the lapels. Sara thought that she spotted a pair of Captain’s bars, but these had the addition of an hourglass to their centre.

“Time Captain,” she murmured. But there was also a large starburst shape with a red stone at its centre, and she didn’t recognise that.

“Why is Rip wearing the symbol of the Time Council?” asked Ray, as he too caught them up. That answered that question, she thought, but it didn’t make any sense. Rip hated the Time Council.

People were applauding Rip as he took position behind the podium, and Rip was making the traditional hand gesture for people to take seats and calm down.

“I would suggest listening to the Captain’s speech,” said Gideon, calmly. “I’m sure that will help explain what is happening here.”

“In 2166, an immortal tyrant named Vandal Savage tried to conquer the world and murder my wife and child. On the same day that I saved my family, I discovered that the body I'd sworn my allegiance to, the Time Masters, was behind Savage’s unhistoric rise to power. I know that you’re all aware of what happened after that. I was given the full support of my fellow Captains to root out the evil at the heart of our organisation and build something new, something better. We forged a new organisation that was able to give the world a future that didn’t involve the tyranny of Vandal Savage, but instead promoted hope and international co-operation. It took us years of discreet alterations to the timeline, but at no point did we waver from our path. We stayed the course and completed our mission. We have truly lived up to our oath to protect the timeline and serve humanity. You are excellent Time Masters and you have acquitted yourselves admirably,” Rip gestured at the assembled ranks before, his voice full of pride.

“It is my belief that we are here to learn, and I hope that I have learnt from the mistakes of my predecessors. I am proud to lead you.”

There was more applause and Rip paused while it died down. He took a deep breath before continuing, and Sara wondered if he was actually a little emotional. He looked down at the podium and then out at the crowd again.

“So, we have two things to celebrate, the completion of a mission which has been arduous but has been thoroughly worth the endeavour, and the addition to our ranks of a new generation of Time Masters. It has always been a pleasure to congratulate the new graduates on their accomplishment. We all know that the training is not easy, but today I am doubly proud as my own son will be joining his parents as a fully qualified Time Master.”

There was riotous applause and cheering from a group of young people to one side of the platform, and a young man was patted on the back by those stood nearest to him, whilst he blushed. He seemed to be quite well liked by his peers. Rip straightened himself up.

“Could the Chief Training Officer join me on stage, please, and we will award the graduates their insignia?”

A dark haired woman stepped up onto the stage, and Sara recognised her instantly from her picture.

“Miranda,” said Gideon, with a touch of sadness in her tone. “And Jonas, all grown.”

A procession of young, uniformed men and women were walking across the stage, shaking Miranda’s hand and then Rip’s, having been handed a tiny metal pin and a rolled-up certificate. They seemed to be quite happy about this. The last member of the group was a young man and received a shake of Miranda’s hand and then a hug, so Sara was going to assume that this was Jonas. She didn’t think Rip would hug his son, but she was wrong.

Sara exchanged looks with Jax and Ray. “How the hell are we going to get him to leave this? It’s everything he’s ever wanted.”

“We don’t need him to want to leave. We just have to persuade him that it isn’t real. Should be easy,” said Ray, obviously not really believing his own words.

There appeared to be a sort of party happening now that the ceremony was concluded. It looked like parents had come to see their children graduate, and they stood around with their offspring making awkward small talk. There were still a few new graduates who stood without parental support, but it certainly wasn’t the whole class.

“Huh, I guess the Time Masters don’t just recruit orphans anymore,” said Jax.

Sara sighed. Rip looked really happy and they were about to ruin that in order to save his life, a life that she wasn’t even sure that he wanted some days. It had to be done though. She wouldn’t let him throw himself away to a hallucination.

“Come on, let’s go and break the news to him,” said Sara.

“Let me do it,” said Booster. His voice had taken on a rough edge and it sounded as if he was forcing himself to speak. “It’ll be better coming from me.”

“Are you sure?” asked Sara.

“I may not have raised him, but I’m still his father,” said Booster.

Booster puffed out his chest and strode over to where Rip was standing. Sara guessed that having a relationship with a son who was the same age as you had to be complicated, but she got the distinct impression that Booster was trying to impress Rip.

“Rip!” shouted Booster, waving and grinning.

“Are we sure that’s a good idea?” asked Jax.

“I think we’re about to find out,” said Ray.

“Booster!” replied Rip. “I didn’t think you could make it.”

“I couldn’t miss my Grandson’s graduation, could I?” asked Booster, pulling Rip into a manly hug with a back slap. Rip looked rather perturbed by it.

“But aren’t you supposed to be with Ted?” asked Rip.

“Er… yes! I mean, I was, and now I’m here,” said Booster. “Everything’s fine, but we need to talk. Somewhere private. I brought some friends as well.”

Sara, Ray, Jax and Gideon moved a bit closer, but Rip didn’t appear to recognise any of them. He acted as if they were total strangers. However, for a moment he seemed to stare at Gideon and suddenly, the entire room began to shake. Rip frowned, closed his eyes for a moment and the shaking stopped.

“What was that?” asked Sara.

“Oh, we’ve been having some power distribution issues. The maintenance department are looking into it. It’s really nothing to worry about,” said Rip. “I’m sorry, my father has terrible manners. He didn’t introduce you.”

“Sara Lance,” she replied, and held out her hand to be shaken, which Rip very politely did. “This is Ray, Jax and Gideon.”

“Gideon…” repeated Rip, and he appeared to search for a thought for a moment, “like my ship’s AI.”

“A superb name choice for an AI,” said Gideon.

Miranda approached the group, touching her husband’s arm in a gesture that spoke of long and familiar affection. “Rip, I need to see you for a second. Sorry to drag him away.”

“Of course,” said Rip, with a slight incline of his head. “Just give me one moment and then I’ll be with you.”

Sara smiled and watched Miranda lead him away from them. There was a small glance back in their direction before they were pointedly ignored.

“Crap,” said Sara. “Something’s not right about this.” She turned inwards to address her companions. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like it.”

“Me neither,” said Jax. “And what was with the floor shaking like that?”

“At a guess, I would say the shaking indicates when the Black Mercy’s control is weakening because Captain Hunter is unable to reconcile something in the hallucination with his memories. The plant’s control is made easier because Captain Hunter wants to believe that this world is real. I believe that the organism will also try to protect itself by ensuring that Captain Hunter doesn’t listen to us. Which is why Miranda has just summoned guards to have us arrested,” said Gideon.

“What?!” asked Jax.

“Even me?” asked Booster, at the same moment.

“We need to get out of here now and find another way to do this,” said Sara, turning back towards where Rip and Miranda had been talking, to find them approaching purposefully once more.

“I think you’ll find that it’s already too late for that,” said Rip, as guards somehow appeared from nowhere to surround them. “Miranda informed me that no Time Sphere is currently docked on the Vanishing Point, in fact no time ships have docked in the last hour. I don’t know who you are or where you came from, but you’re not my father. Take them all to the cells until we can get to the bottom of this.”

The guards moved in.

“Oh good, again,” said Ray, with a sigh.

“Rip, this isn’t real!” shouted Sara, as the guards laid hands on her shoulders to move her away. She shook off their hands. “You’re trapped in a hallucination.”

Rip’s eyes narrowed. “Your tricks won’t work, Miss Lance. Whatever you came here to do, I’m fairly certain that you can’t do it from inside a jail cell. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I would like to return to my son’s graduation.”

“Rip, you know us, come on, man!” said Jax, as he too was pulled away by two enthusiastic guards. “You trained me to be an engineer and fix the Waverider.”

“You helped teach me how to control my bloodlust and gave me a purpose,” said Sara.

“You showed me that I didn’t need a suit to be a hero,” added Ray.

“You are my Captain,” said Gideon, simply. “I will always take care of you.”

Rip seemed frozen to the spot, and he stared at them.

“No, this isn’t right,” he murmured, putting a hand to his furrowed brow. He shook his head, reminding Sara of when he’d been trapped in his own mind before. His shoulders hunched over and he turned away from them as if their mere sight was too much for him.

The entire room shook around them, but then Jonas, the newly graduated Time Master, was beside his father.

“Is something wrong, Dad?” he asked, putting a hand on his father’s shoulder with a gesture of gentle concern. “You’ve been working too hard.”

“Maybe I have,” said Rip, and he took a deep breath and straightened up. “Follow my orders and take them to the cells. I’ll deal with them later.”

“Rip!” tried Sara, again.

“It won’t work,” said Booster, “the hold that the Black Mercy has on him is too strong. We need to think of something else.”

Booster shook off his own guard for a moment. “Hey, Rip, if you want to know what we’re really up to then you’d best come down and see us soon.”

That got Rip’s attention, although he seemed to be too busy being comforted by his wife and son to act on it, but he watched as they were manhandled away to the cells.

“If he doesn’t remember us, how do we get him to shake off the fantasy?” asked Jax.

“I do not know, Mr Jackson,” said Gideon, her eyes downcast as they were placed in separate cells.

“Huh, I remember this place. So much for all his talk of change. They didn’t even redecorate…” Ray examined his cell, noting the forced field that prevented them from leaving.

“Ray! You’re not helping. We need to come up with a new strategy!” said Sara, tension in her tone.

“You were close when you were reminding him about what he’d done for you,” said Booster. “Maybe we just have to turn that up to eleven.”

“What did you have in mind?” asked Sara.

“I know my son. We’re not going to shatter this illusion by telling him how great he is. He barely acknowledges that he’s done any good for the world at all. And anyway, this fantasy he’s created is already all about talking him up. We need to do the opposite,” said Booster.

“Are you suggesting that we insult Captain Hunter’s abilities?” asked Gideon.

“No, I’m suggesting that we get real,” said Booster. “We remind him that Miranda and Jonas are dead and he couldn’t save them. We point out that he used me to fix the timeline without telling me who he was, and let me think he was dead.”

“The Captain feels quite guilty about that,” said Gideon. “It seems unfair to hold it against him.”

“No, I think I see what Booster’s saying,” said Sara. “We need to hurt him because reality hurts.”

“Maybe a little overly negative,” said Ray. “There are a lot of good things in Rip’s life. Like us.”

“Dude, do you need me to list everything that’s happened to him the last two years,” said Jax. “His life is a mess and he’s just picking up the pieces when he gets attacked by Audrey.”

“Well, when you put it that way…” conceded Ray.

“I know that none of us want to hurt him more, but our first job is to save his life. We’ll deal with the fallout when he’s back amongst the living. Do you all understand what you have to do?” asked Sara, knowing she was going to hate having to do this.

The humans nodded, although Sara noted that there was very little eye contact being made. But Gideon was still stood looking thoughtful.

“Gideon? I understand that he’s your Captain, but we need you too.” Sara leaned forwards, trying to get the best angle to see Gideon properly.

She lifted her eyes. “I understand. However, the consequences of this strategy may be long lasting for Captain Hunter.”

“I’m out of ideas. So unless you can think of something better…”

“I cannot and I calculate a high probability that this will indeed bring him to the realisation that the hallucination is not real,” said Gideon.

“We’ll help him, Gideon,” said Ray. “When he’s back with us.”

At that moment the object of their discussion strode into the room, coat flapping behind him. He stopped at a point where he had all five occupied cells within the range of his vision.

“Right then, who wants to go first?” asked Rip, standing squarely, with his arms crossed over his chest. “I have no problem with allowing you to rot in these cells, but I might see my way clear to leniency if you confess your scheme now.”

“We weren’t lying when we said that this isn’t real, Rip,” said Sara.

“Oh not this again. Do you have any idea how ludicrous that sounds? He shook his head. “I have no idea what this is gaining you, but I don’t believe a word of it.”

“Rip, I’m really sorry to do this to you, but this place is killing you. In the real world you were attacked by a Black Mercy. It’s feeding off your body and keeping you asleep and calm with these hallucinations.”

Rip leaned forwards as if he was trying to better hear what she was saying, but he shook his head. He let out a mirthless laugh, at what he clearly considered to be insanity. “You will have to do much better than that to get me to believe your nonsense. I can feel the floor under my feet, breathe the air, talk to the people…”

Sara continued on, knowing what she had to say. “Do you actually think that you’re capable of building something like this? You couldn’t even persuade the Time Masters to give you your ship, you had to steal it. Your leadership of our team was a failure, so we replaced you.”

“No, I never had a team. I always worked alone until I rescued Miranda and Jonas…”

“Miranda and Jonas are dead, kid,” said Booster, his voice was firm but gentle.

“No,” Rip replied, simply, “they’re in the control centre, planning our next mission. Leave my family out of whatever this thing is that you have against me.”

“Vandal Savage killed them, Captain,” said Gideon. “You tried many times to save them, but nothing you did could prevent it from happening.”

Rip looked at Gideon for a moment, and he frowned. Sara was sure that he’d almost believed Gideon, even where he hadn’t believed the others. His arms dropped to his sides.

“No, it’s not true,” he said, a tinge of anger creeping in.

“When you couldn’t save them, you recruited a team by lying to us about the mission. You didn’t even mention Miranda and Jonas until we found you out,” said Ray.

Rip was vigorous shaking his head now.

“No, I was desperate, you were my only hope to save them…”

The floor shook, and Rip’s expression changed. His brow knitted, as if he was pondering the words he’d just said and perhaps wondering where they’d come from.

“I…was desperate…” the words were forced from his lips again.

“Damn right you were desperate,” said Jax, sounding very angry. “You nearly killed me when you sent me down to the engine room to repair a faulty time-drive so we could chase after Savage again. You used all of us.”

“It was never my intention that you would be hurt, I assumed there was no danger. I’m so sorry that I was wrong,” said Rip.

The shaking of the floor increased. Rip took a step backwards to try to steady himself and coincidentally get further away from Jax.

“Explain your abandonment of me,” said Gideon, sharply. “You turned me off, and you hid things from me, even though we’ve been together for years.”

“Gideon, I had no choice, I’m sorry,” he said, apologetically.

“It was selfish of you,” said Gideon, not even stopping to hear the apology.

“I had to protect the Spear!”

“You didn’t have to time scatter me to the Jurassic. I was nearly eaten by a Tyrannosaurus!” complained Ray.

“Meanwhile I got put on trial for witchcraft,” Sara chipped in. “You didn’t protect _us_ , you put _us_ in danger!”

“Perhaps you would have preferred facing down a nuclear bomb!” Rip shouted back.

“Rip,” said Booster, sharply. “You need to wake up now. None of this is real.”

“No, I have my family back! I refuse to give them up!” Rip bent over, his hands on his knees, breathing heavily, as he tried to get a grip on his emotions. He staggered again as the floor continued shaking, and fell backwards, collapsing to the ground, his legs splayed out at awkward angles and his coat spread behind him. He made no attempt to get up, just leaned on his arm, his hair falling over his forehead.

The prison cells themselves seemed to be getting less solid, so much so that with a small push of her hands Sara was able to move through the forcefield. The others followed suit once they saw that it was possible.

“You know this isn’t real,” said Sara. “It’s a fantasy built with the goal of keeping you here. Everything is too perfect. I mean look around you. This is everything that you ever wanted. Earth saved from the Thanagarians, Vandal Savage defeated, Miranda and Jonas safe, and everyone loves you, claps your speeches, agrees with your every word. You know this isn’t right.”

“Daddy!” shouted a suddenly much younger Jonas. Sara assumed that this was the age he’d been when he died.

Rip automatically held his arms out to him, and there were tears in his eyes as he hugged the little boy.

Sara looked to her other team mates for support. Jax and Ray didn’t appear to know what to do and were exchanging panicked glances. The room that they were in was crumbling as it was shaken to pieces by the strength of Rip’s realisation, and Sara wasn’t sure what happened to them when the entire thing disappeared. Gideon knelt down beside Rip and placed a hand on his lower arm.

“They were all I had,” Rip sobbed, into his son’s hair. His emotion was raw and on display for all to see. “They were my world.”

“You have us,” said Gideon. “I have been your companion all these years.”

“And you’ve still got a family, kid,” said Booster. “I keep telling you to visit more.”

“I want to be with them.” He swallowed another sob. “This is better. I want them back.”

Booster took a knee beside Rip. “You know that’s not what they’d want, and I _can’t_ lose _you_. Not now that I’ve found you again.”

To Sara it very much sounded as if Booster had lost someone else close to him recently, but this was not the time to contemplate such things. She’d have to wait for answers to that theory.

“You are not alone, Captain. We are here for you,” said Gideon.

Rip raised his head and looked at Gideon, tears welling in his eyes and following slow tracks down his cheeks.

“I know Gideon, I understand, now, how do I wake up?” said Rip.

“You have to tell him that he isn’t real,” said Gideon. “He’s the last thing holding you here.”

Rip took a deep breath and nodded reluctantly. His breathing hitched, and he pushed back a little from his son so that he could look at him.

“Jonas, I loved you and your mother, and I miss you every day. I will never forgive myself for being unable to save you, but I know that you’re not real. None of this is the real world and I can’t stay here.”

Jonas smiled up at his father and then hugged him again. He faded away in Rip’s arms.

Blackness engulfed Sara, and a second later she was waking up on the floor of medbay. She felt stiff and a little sore, and her head ached.

Naturally, the first thing she heard wasn’t someone enquiring if she was okay, but Mick Rory shouting: “Die, evil plant! Roast in the hell you came from!”

“I think that’s sufficient to kill it, Mr Rory,” said Martin, as the flames died down.

Sara pushed herself up on her elbows and could see Ray and Jax doing the same.

“Did we do it?” asked Jax.

“You did,” said Martin, happily. “The Black Mercy has detached itself from Captain Hunter, and as you can see, it won’t be causing anymore trouble.”

As far as Sara could make out, all that remained of the vile plant was a pile of ash on the medbay floor. However, her eyes were drawn to the medbay couches. Booster was pushing himself to his feet and then stumbling across the gap to lean on the arm of Rip’s couch. The smile had gone from Rip’s face and she could see two damp rivers of tears leading from the corners of his eyes. Rip had been crying in his sleep.

“Why isn’t he waking up?” Booster asked, worriedly. He was looking at the red marks on Rip’s skin from where the Black Mercy had pierced his body with its thorns and teeth.

“His body has been under extreme stress,” said Gideon. “Very few unenhanced humans have experienced the Black Mercy and survived. I am now able to begin the healing process. I suggest you allow him to rest, Mr Carter.”

Booster nodded. “Sleep well, kid.”

Then he returned to the other bed, lying back and surveying the room. “Everyone else okay? I feel like I drank a bottle of vodka and then went partying all night.”

“Yeah, that’s… really close to what this feels like. I guess we’ll live though,” said Sara.

“You should all go to your quarters and get some proper rest. It looks like it may be a while before Captain Hunter wakes up. I’ll call you as soon as he’s showing signs of coming round. I imagine he’ll need a few friendly faces nearby,” said Martin.

“It’s fine. I’m sleeping right here until he’s awake,” said Booster, looking over at Rip with a decidedly protective air about him. However, he then made a show of stretching out his limbs and leaning back with his hands linked behind his head. It was almost as if he wanted them to believe he wasn’t really that worried. “He’s going to be so happy to see me.”

“I bet he is,” said Sara. She rather gingerly and slowly pushed herself into a standing position. She stretched out her muscles, and rubbed at a sore spot on her back. “Actually, a proper bed does sound good, but call me the moment he even breathes differently.”

“Of course,” said Martin.

Sara headed out of the medbay to get some proper sleep.

***

Medbay. He was in medbay. He could tell before he even woke up.

So, something had happened. To him. Or at least that had involved him. He felt terrible. His head and chest both ached, although it felt strangely far away and unimportant, so he was on the good painkillers. He drifted for a moment. Miranda would wake him if anything important came up.

Miranda.

Why did he feel the sudden need to call her to his side? He’d been injured and in medbay before now. He didn’t need her to soothe his brow and she wasn’t the kind of woman to sit around moping when her husband was ill. Although, often he would wake up to find her sat next to him, working on the latest training schedule, as he recovered from his most recent mishap.

Miranda and Jonas.

They meant so much to him, and he was so looking forward to holding them in his arms when he felt better. Jonas was going to be a fine Time Captain, just like his father. They had joked about it being the family business… something made him stop that thought, although he wasn’t sure what.

Something was wrong. Something had happened to him. But that wasn’t what was really wrong. He tried to remember, and his eyes snapped open as it hit him. Something had happened, not to him, but to Miranda and Jonas.

“No…” he murmured. He squinted, trying to urgently make his eyes work so that he could see around him. The bright lights hurt, and made it hard to see as he blinked furiously. Someone had placed a soft, dark blue blanket over him as he slept, and his hand grasped it tightly, fearfully, bunching it into anxious knots. “Miranda? Jonas?” he asked, urgently, as he tried to sit up and found his muscles barely responded to his commands. He felt dizzy and his vision swam. A strong pair of arms caught him as he pitched sideways.

“Rip, woah there,” said a very familiar voice, “lie down, would you? You’re not up to all this moving about yet.” The arms holding him carefully helped him to lie down and Rip felt the touch of leather on the bare flesh of his arm. He could smell the leather too and the subtle odour of cologne and shampoo that triggered a memory instantly.

“Dad?” he asked, peering up at Booster Gold. “Did you come for Jonas’s graduation? Where’s Miranda?” The medbay appeared empty apart from the two of them.

Booster looked at Rip with an expression that he didn’t think he’d ever seen on his father’s face before. He was uncomfortable, and he paused before he spoke.

“I’m sorry, Rip. Miranda and Jonas… Miranda and Jonas are dead,” said Booster.

Rip stared at his father with disbelief. “No, that was just a dream. The Vanishing Point medics tell me it’s just anxiety because I nearly lost them.”

Booster shook his head, sadly. “No, they were killed by Vandal Savage. In your personal timeline, they’ve been dead for nearly two years.” He paused again, apparently having trouble continuing. “Rip, you were attacked by a Black Mercy. It gave you everything you wanted, but it wasn’t real. Skeets told me it’s normal to be a little confused about things when you wake up.”

Rip was about to deny it again, because he knew his family were alive… But something stopped him. He tried to bring up the memories of the rescue and instead entirely different ones surfaced. He had memories of him holding Miranda and Jonas, lifeless in his arms as London burned around him and his world ended. Then it was as if a huge weight was suddenly pushing down on him, and he found it hard to breathe.

“No,” he said, again, in a small, broken voice. He pushed his father away, as if that would undo the truth that he’d spoken. “No… it’s not… it’s not true. I didn’t… fail. I can’t have.”

He felt tears streaming down his face and he turned away from his father and sobbed, huge wailing, wracking sobs of the deepest pain that he’d ever known. He pulled in his arms and legs, unconsciously trying to make himself smaller and the pain less. Then he felt the arms wrap around him again, and for once he gave in and allowed himself to be held.

It was an awkward embrace, with the arm of the medbay couch getting in the way, but Booster did the best he could, leaning in to get his arms around his son. He said nothing, letting Rip cry until he had nothing left in him. It took him a long time until all his tears were exhausted at the hopelessness of his loss. It left him exhausted and emotionally drained, feeling as if he had no idea where to go next. He knew this feeling, he knew it intimately because he had been here before.

He had tried to rescue them and he had been unable to. They were still gone and now it was as if it had happened only yesterday, once more. He had thought that he was finally moving on with his grief, and this had brought him back to square one. He was once more living in the bright pain of the recently bereaved; it was a fire that ate at him, taking all he had to fight past the need to simply stop functioning.

“Sorry,” he whispered, “sorry.”

“Don’t be,” said Booster.

“I lost them twice,” he murmured, between short intakes of breath. “It was so real… And I wish I was still there. So very much.” He rubbed at his eyes, and the movement was enough for Booster to release him from the hug.

Booster stepped back from the couch. He looked a little embarrassed that he’d hugged Rip, and didn’t seem to know what to do with himself. He paced from one side of the medbay to the other.

“Rip, you just need time… Get some distance, remember it wasn’t real… I’m terrible at this. I really have no idea how to do this Dad thing,” said Booster, running a hand through his hair.

Rip sniffed. “Actually you’re doing fine. The “Dad thing” isn’t easy, and it’s not like you got to build up to it like I did. Besides, I really am a little old to need a father figure.”

“Yeah, congratulations Booster, it’s a 30 year old man!” said Booster, coming over to Rip’s side again. He let out a rather forced laugh, and Rip recognised that he was trying to joke and make his son feel better.

Rip tried to slow his breathing, but he was too worked up. He closed his eyes, urging himself not to feel and trying to cut out his false memories of Jonas, grown and happy. He drew in a shuddering breath.

“I don’t know how to deal with this,” said Rip, quietly. “I don’t know if I can.” He probably shouldn’t admit that, and he wasn’t sure that he would have done with anyone else.

“You can,” said Booster, and there was a touch on his shoulder, which he nearly shied away from, but then allowed. “You’re my son, Michael Carter Junior, and the Carter family is made of pretty strong stuff.”

He scrubbed at his eyes. He had no intention of descending into another fit of sobbing, one of those in front of Booster was enough. Although, honestly, Rip felt that Booster was one of the few people he could relax around. They didn’t exactly have the usual father and son relationship, their history was too complicated for that, but they had something. It hadn’t always been like this, they’d annoyed the other a lot when they met properly for the first time, and then Booster had been angry that Rip hadn’t told him the truth that he was his son. Still, his father had turned out to be something of a surprise. He knew about Booster’s history; the thrown matches and gambling, his outwardly chaotic and self-centred personality, but the gambling had been to provide for his mother and, when he wasn’t putting on a show for the outside world, inwardly he was warm and loyal. Every time Rip had needed Booster, his father had been there for him.

Rip shook his head, tears oozing from his closed eyes again. “I can’t go through it again… How do I grieve for them when I’m not even remembering the real them?”

 “I don’t know, but you have me and Gideon. And this team you’ve assembled seem to kind of like you,” said Booster. “We’ll get you through this.”

“It just feels so pointless. And I can’t even punish the person that did this to me,” said Rip, trying to persuade his eyes not to well with tears again. He doubted that revenge would help, but at least it would have given him something to focus on.

 “So, it _was_ Maxwell Lord? Like I thought? Just this once, let me punch him or something,” said Booster.

“I wish I could, but who knows what an unscheduled assault by Booster Gold on Maxwell Lord would do to the timeline,” said Rip, leaning back into the couch, and not looking in Booster’s direction.

He was so tired, exhausted by his emotions, and he knew he wasn’t done with them. The black hole that had once threatened to consume him was back again, and all he felt was loss and longing.

“Ted’s safe though,” said Booster.

“Yes, the Blue Beetle lives to fight another day,” said Rip. “There is the question of where Lord got such a despicable creature as the Black Mercy, though.”

“Okay, so I do get to punch him? Maybe just a little?”

“No, you still don’t get to punch him, but we do get to ask him some pointed questions,” said Rip. He tried to sit up again, shoving the blanket down to his legs.

Booster rolled his eyes. “No, you’re not well enough to be getting up and running around after bad guys. Wow, that was such a Dad thing to say, maybe I am getting the hang of this.”

“Luckily, I’m old enough to make my own decisions,” replied Rip, dryly, as he tried to swing his legs off the couch. He realised that someone had dressed him in a pair of his own pyjamas, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to think too deeply on who that had been.

Booster put a hand on Rip’s chest and pushed him back down to the couch, gently. It was disappointingly easy.

“Don’t be an idiot,” said Booster. “You had an alien parasite try to kill you less than 48 hours ago, and then you slept for most of a day. It’s going to take you more than a few hours to bounce back, kid.”

“Would you stop calling me “kid”. I’m older than you!” replied Rip.

“At the moment,” said Booster, smirking. For a second his expression became more serious, “but you’ll always be my kid.”

Rip had no words in reply to that, and then Booster was grinning again and looking up at the ceiling.

“Gideon, back me up. He’s in no state to be getting up, right?” asked Booster.

“You are correct, Mr Carter. I recommend that Captain Hunter remains in sickbay for at least another day to recover his strength.”

“Traitor,” mumbled Rip.

“I heard that,” said Gideon.

“Of course you did,” said Rip, with resignation. “And no doubt I will pay for it later.”

Rip realised with some resignation that Gideon and Booster were correct, and he was already tired again.

“Get some sleep, Rip,” said Booster, “you need it and the bad guys will wait.”

“I’m not sure I can sleep,” he replied, truthfully. He knew that nightmares awaited him.

“I can provide help,” said Gideon. “I have already set the room to your preferred temperature for sleep and I can provide a sleep aid if you need it.”

“Let her help,” said Booster.

Rip sighed. “Very well.”

He felt his limbs getting heavier and his eyes closed.

“Sleep well, kid,” said Booster, and then Rip was drifting into sleep.

***

It was several days before Gideon deemed Rip to be sufficiently recovered that he was allowed out of the medbay, and he hadn’t been left alone the entire time he’d been there. One of the Legends or Booster had always been with him, and he got the impression that they were all quite worried about him. Being fair, their concern was not entirely misplaced.

Rip was lost in grief and deepening depression. He could only sleep if Gideon drugged him, and he loved the few brief minutes he had after awakening before he remembered everything that had happened to him. His concentration was shot, so even trying to read didn’t provide any distraction. His mind would not stop showing him images of his wife and child, either from his hallucination or his many failed rescue attempts. He honestly wasn’t sure which he found worse now, the false memories or the real ones. The hallucination taunted him with tantalising memories that he now knew were lies, but the reality was simply unbearably distressing.

He was glad to finally be able to escape the constant and oppressive surveillance that his friends provided. He knew that they meant well, and suspected that it was partly a suicide watch, but it was too much. He’d shuffled to his quarters and shut out everyone. He stayed there for two days, not opening the door to anyone and even asking Gideon if the coast was clear before venturing out to collect the meals that were left for him outside his door. Despite Gideon’s obvious annoyance, he drank the bottle of whiskey that he had in his quarters. It was the only way he achieved any respite from his feelings and memories. He wasn’t supposed to be drinking with the painkillers that Gideon had fabricated for him to take, but his solution to that was simply not to take them. They weren’t for the right kind of pain anyway.

On the third day he ran out of booze and decided that if he was to continue drinking there was only one place for him to go. He threw on a t-shirt and sweatpants, and moved to the parlour where there was more alcohol to be drunk. Of course, the only problem with that was that other people could find him again.

It had taken Booster about five minutes to wander in and slump down in the opposite chair, pausing to grab his own glass of the amber liquid before he did so. Rip looked over at Booster. Now that he looked properly and his vision wasn’t obscured by his constant tears, he realised that his father had dark circles under his eyes and looked worn out. He moved a little stiffly too.

“You look like you need some sleep,” said Rip.

“I’m fine,” said Booster. “Besides, you’re the one drinking at 11am.”

“You just joined me!”

“I think you’ve done enough drinking alone,” said Booster.

Apparently Gideon had informed him what he’d been doing in his quarters for the past two days. He glanced in the direction of where her avatar usually appeared.

“You once tried to take the Time Sphere out whilst drunk, you don’t get to lecture me on my drinking,” said Rip, taking a large mouthful of his whiskey. “Why are you even still here?”

“I thought I’d hang around, see if I could pick up some tips on policing the timeline,” said Booster, most definitely lying through his teeth.

“Huh,” said Rip, sipping his drink again. “I’m not sure that the Legends are the best people to give tips on that. And I’d prefer to drink alone.”

“Captain Lance is on her way to the bridge,” said Gideon.

“Fantastic,” said Rip, in a tone that made it clear it was anything but.

“I’ll go when Sara gets here. You’re going to have to tell me how you ended up with this bunch. Do they know about the Justice League yet?” asked Booster.

“No, they do not, and you will _not_ tell them,” said Rip, with a finger pointed towards his father. “I’d like the future to remain as intact as possible.”

“Wouldn’t we all,” said Sara, as she entered the parlour. “You’re out of your room.”

“Obviously,” replied Rip, finishing his first glass and pouring himself a second.

“Go get some sleep, Booster. I’ll take over. You’ve been up far too long,” said Sara.

“You have?” asked Rip

“Okay, I’m going,” said Booster, downing his drink in one and getting up from his chair while noticeably failing to reply to Rip’s question. He left the room with a wave as he went.

Sara eyed up Booster’s rear, before turning her attention back to Rip.

“I really don’t need a babysitter. I’d prefer to be alone,” said Rip.

“Not happening,” said Sara. “Your Dad is _hot_.”

“Sara… no,” said Rip.

Sara grinned mischievously, but her expression turned more serious as she poured herself a drink and took the seat that Booster had just vacated. She casually leaned back in the chair.

“So, how are you feeling?”

“I’m fine,” said Rip. “A little weak and stiff.”

Sara put her drink down on the table beside her, folded her arms and looked at him disapprovingly. “Yeah, try again.”

He regarded her with an equal amount of annoyance. “I had my family back, Sara, and it all turned out to be lie, but a lie that felt so real that I could hug them and hold conversations with them.” He felt his throat tighten and he turned away. “I’ll _be_ fine, it just might take me a little time.”

“You don’t need to do this alone, Rip,” said Sara.

“Booster already gave me the speech, Sara, but you’ve made it clear that you don’t need me. I don’t have a place on this ship anymore.”

“That’s a load of crap, and you know it. This is your ship. Gideon misses you,” said Sara.

“Captain Lance is correct. I did miss you,” said Gideon.

“Thank you, Gideon, I missed you too,” replied Rip, with a glance upward.

Sara frowned, and moved herself into sitting in a more upright position.

“Wait, is that why none of us were in your perfect world? I mean, you mentioned Booster was there, and I saw Eve Baxter and your mother at that Time Master graduation ceremony. Why weren’t any of us?”

Rip thought for a moment. “I’m not sure. It was a selfish wish fulfilment fantasy, a product of my arrogance and grief. It was all disappointingly predictable and egotistical. I have something of a one-track mind and I’m clearly not doing as well with dealing with my grief as I thought I was.”

“I don’t know. To me it looked like your fantasy was to have your family with you, to save millions of people and protect the timeline. It wasn’t fame, or money, or a life of leisure. Don’t you think that says something about you?” asked Sara.

“Perhaps that I need more of a social life,” he replied, dryly, and took another sip from his glass.

Sara shook her head, dismissing Rip’s attempt at a joke.

“No, it says that you care about your family and protecting people first, not yourself,” she said. “Okay, maybe there was a touch of arrogance in there that you thought you were the best person to do that, and that you could do it without us, but I’ll let you off. You’ve had a hard couple of years.”

Rip rolled his eyes.

“Don’t do that,” said Sara.

“Don’t do what?” he asked.

“Pretend that you’re not a good man, and that what you’ve been through is nothing. You told me that I was one of the strongest people that you know. Well, I have news for you, you’re one of the strongest people _I_ know, but that still doesn’t mean you can handle this on your own.”

Rip rolled his head, slumping his shoulders with a sigh. “Really? I’m not a child. I’ve been protecting time longer than all of you put together.”

“Booster said you looked terrible when you arrived to help him,” said Sara. “Don’t you think there’s a chance that you lost concentration and that’s why this mission went wrong? You’re trying to take this all on your shoulders, and you don’t have to. I mean, have you been sleeping at all since we dealt with the Spear?”

“I’m fine,” protested Rip. “I was anyway.”

 “When did you last take any time off?” asked Sara. “Have you actually had a single day’s rest since you recruited us?”

“I don’t see the point of this discussion,” said Rip, although he knew the answer. “I swore an oath to protect the timeline. I don’t get to pick and choose which battles I fight.”

“Yes, you do. You have Booster and you have us. Delegate.”

“It isn’t that simple, and you know it. We’re already stretched too thin. There were hundreds of Time Masters and there’s only a handful of us. I have yet to locate Captain Baxter and the Acheron, or any of my other former colleagues,” said Rip. “I simply do not have time to sit around and do nothing while I heal from the latest horrible thing that some temporal villain has done to me.”

“Then we need more people,” said Sara.

Rip opened his mouth to retort but stopped himself. He thought about it for a moment. Perhaps Sara was right, and his fantasy hadn’t been totally stupid.

“Maybe we do. We need a new Time Masters, but not like the organisation we had before. In my hallucination I rebuilt the Time Masters, but I made it better, accountable and transparent,” said Rip. “That’s what we need.”

Sara was nodding, but Rip wasn’t quite finished.

“I can’t do that alone though. I’ll need you and the Legends. We’ll need to recruit new people and train them, but also track down the former Time Masters that escaped the blast at the Vanishing Point, find a base of operations…” his mind was already racing and working out what needed to be done as it catalogued all the tasks and calculated the chance of finding any of the Time Masters alive.

“Rip, stop!” said Sara. “This is great, and of course we’ll help, but you need to get well first. Just give yourself a week, and then we can talk again.”

“I don’t need a week…”

“You do, probably more, but I’ll take what I can get,” said Sara. “You’re officially grounded for the next seven days. Right, Gideon?”

“Yes, Captain Lance.”

“Gideon!” said Rip, with exasperation. “I can’t believe you’re taking her side.”

“I am just doing what is best for my Captain,” said Gideon.

Rip groaned.

“Rip, please, for once, take the advice of a friend. Rest, use Gideon’s counselling programs and take the time you need to be whole again,” said Sara.

Rip huffed out a breath. “You haven’t given me much choice.”

“I know, but I’m the current Captain of this ship and I actually take that kind of seriously, which means I need my crew to be at the top of their game,” said Sara. “Especially if we’re going after whoever did this to you.”

“Maxwell Lord did this to me, and as I have already explained to Booster, we can’t go after him because of his position in the timeline,” said Rip.

“I know, I talked to Booster. He said the same, but he also said that we could definitely go after the guys who sold the Black Mercy _to_ Lord. I’ve got Gideon looking into possible suspects, and as soon as you’re well enough to jump, we’ll start chasing down the bad guys,” said Sara. “If you’re good, and rest up like you’re supposed to, then I’ll make sure you’re there when we take them down. Deal?”

Rip looked into the depths of his glass of whiskey. He really didn’t have much choice. Gideon was most definitely not going to let him out of her sight for the next seven days, nor was she going to allow him to run himself ragged with work. He knew from long experience how tenacious and cunning his AI could be when she wanted him to do something, especially where his health was concerned.

He let out a long and theatrical sigh. “Fine. You win. I will rest, recuperate and use the counselling programs… Then we will take down the bastards that took my family from me for the second time.”

Sara held out her glass for a toast. Rip clinked his glass against hers.

“Now that’s the Rip Hunter we all know and love.”

***

“Please, don’t kill him, Sara,” said Rip.

“Why not? He bought a Black Mercy with the intention of killing someone,” said Sara, pointing her staff at Maxwell Lord’s neck as he cowered against the wall of his ridiculously opulent office.

“It wasn’t meant for you,” said Lord, clearly having missed the memo that talking was a bad idea.

“You may think you’re making it better by saying that, but you’re really not,” said Ray, from his position just behind Sara.

The rest of the Legends were standing lookout, dealing with guards or were otherwise occupied with making sure that this discussion with Lord was uninterrupted.

“I didn’t even get to punch him,” said Booster, with disappointment. “Can’t I just get one in for the road? He nearly killed you, and that thing was meant for Ted.”

“No,” said Rip, as calmly as he could manage.

Rip had taken his seven days of enforced rest with all the good grace of an angry bear that had just awoken from hibernation. However, he’d been allowed to spend the last few days helping to plan this mission to confront Lord, and to begin working out his plans for a new, and better, Time Masters. Those were about the only things that had stopped him from going stir-crazy. He was not going to tell anyone that he still ached from the Black Mercy’s draining of his life energy or that he occasionally had to lock himself in the bathroom and cry his eyes out. He and Gideon were working on both problems and he had no wish to involve others, Gideon still understood him best after all these years.

“Look, it was just business,” said Lord.

Sara pushed her staff just a little closer to her captive’s windpipe, and he tried to edge himself back through the wall.

“Wrong thing to say,” explained Sara, with menacing overtones.

“Mr Lord, you would make this much easier for yourself if you would just explain where you got the Black Mercy,” said Rip.

“They’re not the kind of people you cross,” said Lord. “If I tell you, then they’ll come after me.”

“That’s not our problem,” said Booster. “Maybe you shouldn’t be buying organic weapons from dodgy people.”

“They just told me it would incapacitate him. I just wanted to stop him giving his speech…” said Lord.

“I don’t believe that for one moment,” said Rip. “Now, a name.”

“Tran Distan,” said Lord. “He’s an arms dealer. An alien, but that’s all I know.”

“How do you get in touch with him?” asked Rip.

“I have a communicator…”

“I can do a reverse lookup,” said Ray, before Lord had even finished the sentence.

“Hand it over,” said Sara.

Lord did as instructed without any further need for threats. Rip thought that it was the most sensible thing he’d done since he and the Legends had arrived.

***

They handed Distan over to Argus. Rip hadn’t been sure what else to do with him. He was a Durlan with access to extensive technology and time travel. Rip suspected that someone else was bankrolling him, and perhaps manipulating things, but for now he had no evidence to support that.

He and Booster stood in the atrium of Argus and watched as the cause of their recent trouble was led away to be locked up. They’d decided that only the two of them were needed for this duty.

“I guess we’re done then. No need for me to stick around,” said Booster. “I should get back to bothering Batman. He probably misses me.”

“Er, right,” said Rip. He looked down at his feet wondering if he would regret what he was about to say. “You could stay a little longer. Sara and I have plans to build a new organisation to guard the timeline. We could use your help.”

“Really? You’d be okay with having your Dad hang out with you and your friends?” Booster grinned, giving Rip a playful shoulder bump.

“I think I can probably put up with it,” said Rip, regarding Booster with the beginnings of a smile. “We’re going to need all the help we can get and you’ve got quite good at spotting issues in the timeline.” He looked away again, unable to meet his father’s eyes as he continued. “And perhaps I could use the support of the little family that I have left.”

Booster’s grin faded.

“Sure, kid,” he replied. He put a hand on Rip’s shoulder and gave it an affectionate squeeze. “But don’t let Gideon and the Legends hear you talk about family that way. I think you’d be in big trouble.”

Rip laughed at that. “You might be right.”

There wasn’t any “might” about it, if he was honest. They all had their own families, but the Legends had bonded into a very peculiar family unit all of their own, which until recently, Rip hadn’t regarded himself as really part of. Things had changed over the last week though. He’d gone from feeling like he wasn’t part of their group, to having them avenge his near death experience, whilst helping him recover. Perhaps he should start to reconsider his position on the team, and make an effort to take part in their social activities. Gideon had been saying as much for a while now, and the Waverider would always be home.

He’d agreed with Sara that whilst he wasn’t going to take over the Captaincy again, he would be heading up the new organisation which the Waverider would be part of. It only made sense that the person with the most experience should take charge, and it hadn’t even been him who’d suggested that. The Legends had all agreed it had to be him.

“Come on then,” said Booster. “Let’s get you home. Sara said something about having a family dinner, and apparently I’m invited too. I can’t wait to show them your baby pictures…”

“Don’t you dare!” said Rip.

Booster just laughed and walked away.

“Bloody hell, what have I done?” murmured Rip, and followed his father, shaking his head. 


End file.
